Rights of the African Woman
Posted by: afrowrite on: August 11, 2008
By Muli wa Kyendo
The other day, I listened with interest as American President George Bush, urged the Chinese to improve their human rights record. It was not that America wanted to impose standards on the Chinese, he said. The Chinese could evolve their own type of democracy provided it adhered to the internationally accepted norms of human rights.
The Rights of the African Woman’s
That was very fair. But the same sentiments are not being extended to the African, especially the African woman. Her human and cultural rights have been ripped apart, torn up and shredded. She can’t enjoy any freedom at all. She wants to live in a polygamous home—as her ancestors have always done—a busy body from the West comes trotting in with criticism, ridicule and what not. Marriage is an adult to adult relationship. Do the couples involved not have the right to live as they choose provided they don’t interfere with other people’s freedom? But no, the West would rather have gays marry than let the African woman live in peace and freedom as her ancestors lived since God created the earth.
Female Circumcision
Similarly the African woman wants to be circumcised, but the West won’t let her. Since time was made, the African woman—and in deed, women from many other races—have been circumcised. But a busybody must rise in the West and pontificate on the evils of female circumcision. Fine, there could be some societies which in their evolution and enthusiasm for the practice have gone overboard and need to be checked. But generally, FMM as it is called is a good thing. The girls were circumcised only when they were old enough to be married. And that ensured that there was no promiscuity, no widespread sexually transmitted diseases such as Aids and what my people call “dog’s diseases” that have been introduced to Africa by the West.
West’s Spurious Researches on Sexuality
What is bad about these misguided campaigns is not that they are based on spurious, speculative or non-conclusive research about human sexuality; they deflect attention and resources on useful development projects. African needs money and concentration to tackle its many problems including democratization, and human rights transgressions (the same thing we are discussing) frequent famines—again created by the West’s colonialism and destruction of traditional economies and cultural systems.
If you don’t agree, raise your opinion in this blog, that’s democracy. And if you agree, please express your support. It’s your right, too.
3 Responses to "Rights of the African Woman"
September 15, 2008 at 1:20 am
So Ron, what you’re saying is that you know personally that FGM raises the risk of disease? You know that all FGM does is “reduce pleasure and sexual function”? Ron, you’re looking at all this from within your own reality. You can’t imagine the concept from their perspective because you can’t think in the same way they do. People that think within their own reality are limited to their culture’s perspective without the knowledge of how any other person outside their culture may think. I’m not saying it’s right. I’m not condoning it by any means. I don’t think it should be done within a culture that doesn’t reflect the same ideology (such as an immigrant wanting to circumcise his/her daughter in the US). But I also don’t think that it is our place to say what should be done. Ron, read beyond the facts published by the West. Learn accounts from the Africans themselves who haven’t already been influenced by the West. Think outisde your own reality.
November 18, 2008 at 11:17 am
Yes Obama being the son of a Luo man won elections in America. Could kenyans allow my proud Lou people have their cocktail of haven won the last Presidential elections in Kenya? In Africa we often pretend to support just courses and rights, whereas we are the most abusive of these rights and courses.
Can one explain the reasons why we have bush wars and internal conflicts in such a huge magnitude across Africa? Are we not sensitive enough to understand that this saps our energy and ruins us economically. Today Kenyans can celebrate with joy for sure.
However the one big question asked is have they rebuild the battered and shattered homes that went into ruins after the bunkered elections that saw Moi Kibaki forced down the throat of kenyans? The unruly gang of the Mungiki sect has remained a force that threatens the very existence of Kenya. What has the state done to stem them out of existence.
Yes Obama won and his catch word was ” Yes we can” Can we like Africans begin bequeathing good values to our younger generatins? Are we prepared to allow younger people to come up and take over the reigns of authority and rule as the people’s will dictate?
Can Africans go back to the drawing board and design constitutions aimed at giving everybody in a say in how the government is governed? Here i mean a government of the people, for the people and by the people. A pluralistic democracy devoid of dictatorship and tyranny.
In Africa we have had very brutal regimes that ruled with a horsewhip or “carrots and the whip” I wonder what has changed ever since Obama won the elections in America across the African political field.
There are leaders still prepared to cling to power at all cost despite the fact that they have ruled their respective Countries or better still villages for more than two decades and more. Africa shall forever remain the dark if we refuse to do a mental liberation as demanded by Bob Marley in one of his sound tracks” free yourself from mental slavery”
In that track he believed that the worst form of slavery was never the physical but the mental and therefore made that clarion call for the liberation of the African mind. The begging question that is being asked is”How many Africans have for sure liberated themselves from that mental slavery denounced by Bob marley?
As an African most often i feel shocked and ashamed of who i am. Africans today leave into slavery in droves wheras before the dawn of the 18th Century they were seized as slaves. The big question that comes to mind is “Which Continent has all the resources and which of these Continents should be a beggar”
This sort of abnormalities have continued for centuries and we should stop them. I know the barrage of questions in your mind. The simple answer is” yes we can beat adversity and rebuild our Continent” Yes we can give back to mother Africa her pride that was raped by invaders. I have often asked this question” What were they looking for in Africa and why had they to destroy our cultural heritage? It is left on us to begin rebuilding that rich cultural heritage.
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- afrowrite: Many thanks for your observations
- nis: i dnt buy the issue of polygamy for afterwards it lead to hatred...another issue is about hiv ..think it should be one man for one wife
- Liza: Hey, nice tips. Perhaps I'll buy a glass of beer to the man from that chat who told me to go to your site :)
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August 12, 2008 at 4:39 pm
It’s really sad that the author has been led to believe that genital mutilation will prevent disease or promiscuity. All it does is reduce pleasure and sexual function, and raise the risk of disease, whether the victim is male or female. Every male and female has the basic human right to enjoy their whole body.